Hughes v. State
| Decision Date | 07 September 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 39986,39986 |
| Citation | 306 S.E.2d 242,251 Ga. 393 |
| Parties | HUGHES v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
David E. Perry, Perry & Perry, P.C., Tifton, for Jeffrey hughes.
Thomas H. Pittman, Dist. Atty., Tifton, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Paula K. Smith, Staff Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Jeffrey Hughes was convicted of the murder of Alonza Davis in Tift County and sentenced to life imprisonment. His appointed attorney has filed a motion to withdraw from the case on the basis that any appeal would be frivolous. He has filed a brief outlining possible contentions of Hughes on appeal. Hughes has been provided with a copy of this brief. We grant counsel's motion and dismiss the appeal. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967).
We have carefully reviewed the record and transcript in this case and conclude that the jury was authorized to find the following. The victim, together with relatives and acquaintances, patronized the Unionville Club, located on the corner of Wilton Avenue and Peachtree Street, Tifton (Tift County), Georgia, during the early morning hours of May 23, 1982. The defendant was not seen inside the club. When the facility closed for the night, the customers congregated outside the club to arrange transportation home. Julius Goins' two-door Chevrolet was parked heading westward on Peachtree Street with the passenger door facing the home of Sam Alexander. Goins entered his vehicle, planning to drive the victim home, and the victim entered the vehicle on the passenger side. A street light illuminated the area. The defendant was observed two blocks from the club, holding a butcher knife. He began to run from Peachtree Street into some bushes, and did not respond when a witness spoke to him. He then ran out from behind the bushes in Mr. Alexander's yard; ran to the passenger side of Goins' parked automobile, striking it with his knee; and fatally stabbed the victim in the right shoulder with the butcher knife through the open window. Neither the defendant nor the victim spoke to the other, and, after the stabbing, the defendant ran back up Peachtree Street. The type of blood on the knife (retrieved from the back seat of the vehicle) matched that of the victim's blood (which had a blood-alcohol level of .13 grams percent alcohol). An intoximeter test of the defendant registered .09 grams percent blood alcohol.
The defendant's version of the stabbing is that, during the early morning hours of May 23, 1982, the victim hit him and threatened him; that he was stunned from the blow to the head, and went home; that he obtained a butcher knife at home, came back to the scene of the crime, and stabbed the victim, but was not trying to kill him.
The court charged the jury as to voluntary manslaughter, felony murder and malice murder. The jury found the defendant guilty of murder.
Counsel for the defendant, in his brief in support of the motion to withdraw, raises three possible errors which might be raised on appeal. The first of these is the court's allowing in evidence the defendant's statement to the police, made while he was allegedly under the influence of alcohol. It was shown at the Jackson v. Denno hearing...
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Hughes v. Sikes
...After a jury found Jeffery Hughes guilty of malice murder, the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment. In Hughes v. State, 251 Ga. 393, 306 S.E.2d 242 (1983), this Court granted appellate counsel's Anders motion and dismissed the appeal as frivolous. Hughes later filed a pro se habe......
- Davis v. Davis, 39985